People

James Stuart

Head of Commercial

James specialises in commercial relationship and employment litigation, focussing upon more substantial and complex cases in which the parties are connected by some form of contractual or equivalent relationship, and associated professional negligence and professional disciplinary tribunal litigation. His practice covers cases involving Employees, Directors, Shareholders, Partners, LLP Members, Agents, Commercial Agents, Franchises, Contractors, Professionals, Banks and other regulated Financial Institutions and Contracting Parties generally. As his recently reported cases illustrate, James appears regularly in the Court of Appeal, all divisions of the High Court, the Employment Tribunals and EAT, and other Professional Tribunals.

James represents Individual and Corporate Claimants and Defendants or Respondents in such matters. In appropriate cases, he is prepared to undertake work on CFA and insurance-funded basis as well as the standard private payment basis.

James has built up considerable experience in recent years in conducting more protracted cases (especially those with substantial documentation or extensive witness evidence) and as a result of the nature of his practice he has developed a reputation for being able to deal with the most legally and factually complex disputes.

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James deals with disputes covering a wide range of commercial areas, including specifically supply of goods and services and construction, sale and carriage of goods (domestic and international), partnerships, franchises, public procurement, commercial agency, agents, consumer credit, insurance, guarantees, banking and mortgages and COBS regulations.

In relation to Company and Insolvency litigation, over the past few years he has been instructed in substantial cases (including long trials, interlocutory and appellate work) for both personal and corporate clients, including shareholder disputes, minority shareholders’ claims, directors’ duties and directors disqualification proceedings.

James also has considerable recent experience in relation to many areas of Professional Disciplinary Tribunal work – including barristers, solicitors, legal executives, property professionals and valuers.

James regularly deals with cases requiring Urgent Interlocutory Relief applications in commercial cases, including applications for Freezing Orders and other injunctions in restrictive covenant, confidentiality and similar disputes.

By way of some recently reported examples of James’s current practice:

He also represented the Appellant in Crinion –v- IG Markets Ltd [2013] EWCA Civ 587 in the Court of Appeal, which involved issues regarding Regulated Financial Services trading, powers of attorney and classification under COB/COBS rules.

In Cooke –v- Hopper [2012] All ER (D) 66 Court of Appeal – James represented the successful property agents, in a case where the Court of Appeal considered the quantum meruit remedy.

James represented the successful Claimant in Rodliffe –v- Rodliffe [2012] EWHC 917 Ch – which involved a long trial of a shareholder dispute between family members and an unfair prejudice petition. In another shareholder dispute, Cuatrecasas –v- Bergman [2012] EWHC 1672 Ch – the Court considered the issues arising where one party challenges an expert determination for manifest error.

In Greaves –v- Stolkin [2013] EWHC 1140 Ch – James represented the successful Claimant in a 2 week Chancery Division trial which concerned the validity of a codicil and testamentary capacity.